The Story Behind: Red Letter Bible Editions

By Steve Eng(Bible Collectors’ World – Jan/Mar 1986)

For
many Christians, a Bible without the words of Christ in red is
almost unthinkable. But like other standard Bible features (such as
chapter and verse numbers), the origin of the practice is virtually
forgotten.

It
is a surprisingly recent innovation, instigated by Louis Klopsch
(1852-1910), an enterprising immigrant journalist. Born in Germany,
he was brought to New York at age two, where the family did not fare
well. Louis left school early, and by age twenty was editing a
merchants’ trade newspaper. He enhanced the columns by interspersing
Bible passages in the text. Then he managed to buy a print shop, and
became a successful publisher. By 1890 he was American editor of the
British weekly, TheChristian Herald.He later
bought it out, and before his death had hiked its circulation from
30,000 to a quarter million.

In
his teens he had been captivated by a service conducted by Rev. T.
DeWitt Talmage. He made Talmage an editor of his paper, and
conceived the idea of distributing his sermons to hundreds of
newspapers. Thus he may have invented the modern tactic of
syndication.

Then on June 19, 1899, while composing an editorial, his eye fell
upon Luke 22:20: “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which I
shed for you.” Seizing upon the symbolism of blood, Klopsch asked
Dr. Talmage if Christ’s words could not be printed in red. His
mentor replied: “It could do no harm and it most certainly could do
much good.”

This new adjunct to the New Testament of course had to include the
words of Jesus quoted by others, in Acts and Revelation. It was
decided to exclude anticipations of Christ (“Christophanies”) in the
Old Testament. An initial edition of 60,000 “Red Letter Testaments”
was soon sold out. Accolades streamed in, from the King of Sweden (a
telegram) to President Theodore Roosevelt (a dinner invitation which
Louis Klopsch accepted).

Klopsch also pioneered American overseas charities in a massive
fashion, raising more than three million dollars through his
newspaper. He aided famine victims in many places such as Sweden and
Japan. Still his legacy of the red-letter Bible is his silent,
largely uncredited monument.

Red
letters are especially useful in the King James Version and in other
translations where quotation marks are not used. There are also
those super-intricate quotations-within-quotations (some of them
four times removed), where the red letters are crucial for
separating the words of Christ from surrounding text.

Of
course some large-print Bibles omit red letters since they are an
obstacle for the vision-impaired (such as Nelson’s Black Letter
Giant Print Bible, KJV). One company unsuccessfully tried to print
Christ’s words in green. Some publishers use a pinkish red that is
hard to read. Often the precise shade of red is left to the
printer’s discretion—or whim. Frank Couch, New Products Planner for
Thomas Nelson Bibles, emphasizes that Nelson insists upon a specific
hue of brick red, distinctive yet easier to read.

So,
despite the changes in Bible publishing, the red-letter option seems
to be a solid fixture welcomed and demanded by vast numbers of
Christians. Red letters have been a venerable Bible asset for
eighty-five years.